A LEADING homebuilding executive has warned that Scotland is facing a crisis over a lack of skilled workers in the construction industry.

Ross Mickel’s comments come as his counterparts down south predict a surge in the industry after the Tories’ majority triumph earlier this month in the general election.

One of England’s biggest construction firms has seen a 20 per cent rise in its share value since David Cameron’s victory and other companies such as Wimpey and Barratt have recorded surges of up to 17 per cent.

However, north of the Border there is concern that the industry could be left behind because of a lack of qualified workers.

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According to him there are a number of factors affecting the situation, including an ageing workforce and the ongoing impact from the recent financial meltdown.

Mr Mickel said: “There is certainly a shortage of skills in trade and we are seeing that on sites on a daily basis.

“More recently, it has been a struggle to get the level of person or the actual criteria that you want filled.

“We are fortunate that we have a lot of our trades in-house so can work sites and move people around.

“We do not use sub-contractors much more than we used to but it is becoming more of a necessity.”

He continued: “The profile of the trades seem to have been lost in the last seven years. When I was growing up we would have conversations about brickies and plumbers.

“Now, when you read the papers it is the next generation of people inventing a game for a console or a software billionaire or something like that. There is not the good stories about the profession.”

However, in England, it is a different story, with the chief executive of Barratt, Britain’s largest housebuilder, confident about the future.

Mark Clare said the election result created “a positive political and economic environment” for the industry.

But he warned about the impact of the recession, mirroring Mr Mickel by saying: “A massive constraint on growth in the next five years will be our ageing workforce and that training new site workers took a back seat during the downturn.”